Overview:The Kogge is a fine example of what happens when the military stops listening to its own needs for those of others, specifically the merchants. This problem, common in most States through history, was never more blatant than in the early Lyran Commonwealth when Alistair Marsden, 2nd Archon of the Commonwealth, ordered a military build-up of the nation armed forces.Not trusting the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces to protect their expeditions and knowing well that this call was also made to heal the wounds opened by “The Crusher”, the different trading companies of the formerly independent Federation of Skye “convinced” several officers at the Quartermaster corps to order a new design, one that would be able to protect their precious convoys and help them in their exploration expeditions.Their plan went well until they tried to pull strings once more to have these ships assigned permanently to them. Several officers they had approached at the Commonwealth Navy Department just went to the Judge Advocate General Department, which lead an investigation and turned the whole thing up before putting an end to its production.

Capabilities:Designed with escort duties in mind, the Kogge (named after a German trading association workhorse ship of Earth) is a ship that might try to do too many things at the same time and that in a true Lyran way is too big for what it intents to do.

At 650,000 tons, this Destroyer is focused on being the shepherd and the protector of smaller, Jump and DropShips. To perform its task, it was fitted with a massive engine allowing it to react quicker than its charges or its preys and an all energy firepower to deal with the long operations it was designed for.Some other trade-offs also made it low on firepower when compared to other WarShips, one of them being the lack of Heat Sinks to fire all its weapons at the same time. However, the Kogge has an all-around firepower against all kinds of targets with 18 Naval PPC, 54 Naval Lasers grouped together in pod batteries all along the ship and some 24 Large Lasers to deal with the smaller opponents.To back it up, it can launch 2 Aerospace Fighters Squadrons and carries a complete Company of Marines to deal with boarding actions.

Its huge autonomy (energy weapons, huge cargo bay for an escort ship, water and food for more than 1.5 years) along with the DropShip collars makes it perfectly suited for deep space operations and long raids with little worries other than replacing damaged amour plating.

The only mistake not to make is to try to think of it as a true BattleShip, it has the reach, speed, and manoeuvrability to make it work. The Kogge crews quickly discovered that if they could dictate the range and closing speed, their ships could do very well.

Battle History:Apart from some skirmishes against pirates or raiders, the Kogge saw no fighting during its operational history in Lyran service. The situation was completely reversed during its campaigns under the different Periphery flags where by mere bad luck or lack of resources, the Kogge became involved in several heavy battles against the Star League Navy on nearly all the fronts.For example, 2 of them fought at Ridgebrook where their speed and weapons made them perfectly suited to the DropShips hunting tactics displayed by the Concordat Navy there but none of them left the system having been destroyed by the overwhelming firepower of the Star League Fleet.The Kogge also served with distinction in the raids against supply lines that were the trademark of the Canopian Navy until they were destroyed alongside the rest of the MAF Navy at Thurrock.The situation in the Rim Worlds Republic was more complex as around half of its navy wasn’t operation and the only Kogge not in a shipyard at that time was destroyed at Newton Shoals along with the rest of the RWR Navy but not before, like at Ridgebrook, showing how effective the design could be against smaller threats.

Variants:Apart from several retrofits of their electronics, sensors and communications systems and probably because of their specialisation, the Kogge managed to get through its operational history without any major upgrade.

Notable Vessels:Only 12 Koggen (German plural of Kogge) were built before the LCAF found out what had happened and cancelled the project.

Deployment:The Kogge saw a two parts career while first serving in the Lyran Commonwealth Navy for escorting duties and then being sold to the Periphery States to bolster their navies and help them fighting off pirates and similar threads.In spite of the Taurian Concordat buying 8 of the available ships, the Kogge never became a popular WarShip in their Taurian Navy as its bays weren't suited for their peculiar Aerospace Fighters organisation.However, those who served on-board found it perfectly suited to their missions and one of them Space Master Adam Natchez even went as far as requesting that they only operate in groups of 3 vessels to be able to bring the full might of an Aerospace Fighter Division on their opponents.However, his call was not heard before the Reunification War.

Doing as I want... have freed up 100,000 tons by reducing the weapons load considerably in accordance with matching it to the star wars specs, and reducing the structure and armor. I kinda need to go peruse the stock warships to calibrate my feel for them. Might be a bit heavy on the cargo side of things.